2-27-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 058   / Week: 08  

Today: L 26°…H 55°… Ave. humidity: 47%

Wind: ave:   10mph; Gusts:  21mph  

Average Low: 20° Record Low:  -12° (1962)

Average High: 47° Record High:  64° (1921)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1557 - 1st Russian Embassy opens in London

1827 - 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans

1877 - US Electoral College declares R Hayes winner presidential election

1950 - General Chiang Kai-shek elected president of Nationalist China

1970 - NY Times (falsely) reports US army has ended domestic surveillance

1973 - American Indian Movement occupy Wounded Knee in SD until May 8, 1973

1976 - Final meeting between Mao tse Tung & Richard Nixon

1992 - Tiger Woods, 16, becomes youngest PGA golfer in 35 years

1994 - 17th Winter Olympic games closes in Lillehammer, Norway

2012 - Wikileaks discloses 5 million emails from private intelligence company Stratfor

2013 - Pope Benedict XVI presents his farewell address to Vatican City

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Strange days continue here in our little mountain town. Good news: got my correct meds today, with an I’m sorry from the pharmacist. Checked with the anesthesia group and they finally posted my payment…8 days after receiving it. I realized the bill came with only a partial address…no Unit number…and told them that was their problem. He admitted that when I read him my address the unit number was not in their computer, but did not think he should tell me that. I told him I expected an apology call from the supervisor for the inconvenience they had cause me. Call SS to find out where my medicare card was…since I am almost a Medicare patient. She said she would mail out a new one since they had mailed me one in October.

 

Then for the really strange deal. When I went to my email at 7a I had gotten one from my bank at 3:14a. It stated that my payment for insurance had been put on hold by the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control/Dept of Treasury). I called the number on the email and found out that since I had put ‘Cuba insurance’ on the memo line the check for $299 it had been tagged as a possible money-laundering payment.  Of course the two checks I had sent to the tour operator for the trip had ‘Cuba Trip’ on the memo line and they went right through. I had to respond to the email with a copy of the full itinerary and within 24-48 hours the bureaucrats at OFAC will decide if they will allow my check to proceed. The tour operator is located in Boston.  I called the tour operator and Ellie to let them know what was up…everyone is still laughing and/or shaking their collective heads. Who would have guessed? If I wasn’t paranoid about government intrusion into private lives, I am moving that direction real fast. My theory is that if I was involved in money laundering, I wouldn’t put Cuba on the check and I certainly wouldn’t just launder $299. What a paranoid world the machines have made our beautiful world.

 

And our governor’s verdict on SB1062 is….VETO. Now our state has lots of fence mending to do with the rest of the country.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

David showed a piece of paper to Kenneth, while covering the top part of it with his hand. The visible portion below his hand read as follows: THIRD FOURTH FIFTH SIXTH SEVENTH EIGHTH NINTH TENTH David said, "My hand is covering two words, the first two words in this list of ten words. The list follows a completely and indisputably logical sequence. None of the words are repeated. I'll bet you $50 that you cannot tell me what those two words on your first try. You can say the two words in either order." Kenneth could not see any reason not to accept this wager, and said "First and second" for the easy $50 win. However, after David moved his hand away, Kenneth realized he had lost, and indeed, there was not even an argument to be made. What were the two hidden words?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

NOTE: I try to keep these videos under 5 minutes…a couple failed that test today, but are still worth the time to view.

• 2008 Native Writers Series #1 - N. Scott Momaday

• Elizabeth Taylor Barbara Walters Interview

• John Steinbeck gives Nobel Prize Speech

• Josh Groban - You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)

• Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

Remembering TV’s great shows:

"Survivor"--The tribe has spoken: If we were stranded on a desert island with only one reality show, we'd carry the torch for this exotic competition.

Look back at History

Death of Osama bin Laden

Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin had, until bin Laden’s death, been without parallel in the world’s opinion of villainy. They were absolute evils, universally despised except by very small numbers of fanatics whose philosophy no one has ever taken seriously. Bin Laden’s status the world over was virtually equivalent to this. He still has plenty of supporters, most of them in various places throughout the Middle East, but their percentage is microscopic compared to the favorable response to his death on May 1, 2011. And it was the United States military, without help from anyone else that did it.

What his death means can be best estimated by means of the world’s favorable response. The phrase repeated in variation was, “He got what he deserved. Justice was served.” In Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a large Muslim population, thousands of Muslims crowded around the city hall and set off fireworks. Osama bin Laden was an enemy of civilized humanity. He lived for his self-perceived purpose of destroying peaceful relations between cultures, and the annihilation of democracy. The United States made the most obvious target for his reckless hate, and he championed murder and suicide. He was a monster.

But most importantly is the technical difficulty involved in finding and dealing with him. It is no easy thing to find someone on Earth who does not want to be found. The USA employed almost every single weapon in its arsenal, the most powerful in the history of Earth, in locating him, and he still evaded justice for a decade. That justice was able to be served, long after most people had given up hope, is a testament to “waking the sleeping giant and filling him with a terrible resolve.” That America never gave up and overcame the difficulties is the true death knell of global terrorism. It may take a century or more, but terrorism will be stopped. Now we believe it.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

Portion of US college graduates who say their job does not require a college degree: 2/5

Unusual Fact of the Day

Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son.

Joke-of-the-day

CEO -- Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO -- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER -- What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use.

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

WHEN TO USE CFLS AND REGULAR LIGHTBULBS

Regular (incandescent) light bulbs should be used anywhere that requires instant, bright light. Basement stairways, porches and garages are ideal for incandescent bulbs. Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs)are ideal for living rooms, bedrooms and general use areas of your home.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

Perps Who Need to Be in a Different Line of Work: "Victim" Joseph Torrez, 27, was at home in Las Cruces, N.M., on New Year's Day with his fiancee and young son when four men barged in (after threatening Torrez on the telephone with "I'm big Eastside," "I'll kill you and your family," "I will go to your house"). Torrez is a mixed-martial arts fighter, and by the time it was over, he and his family were safe, but one home invader was dead, another was in the hospital and the other two (including the telephoner) under arrest. [Las Cruces Sun-News, 1-6-2014]  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• During 33 seasons on the air, Mister Roger's trolley traveled more than 100 miles on its track.

• The first TV weather chart was broadcast in Britain on November 11, 1936.

• The last cigarette ad on TV appeared on The Tonight Show, December 31, 1970.

• England was the first country with regular TV service, in 1936. The United States was second, in 1939.

• Sitcom characters rarely say goodbye when they hang up the phone. 

• In 1948, 2.3 percent of American households had a television. Today 99 percent do.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:
☼22-28☼

National FFA Week
Read Me Week
Bird Health Awareness Week 
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week
National Secondhand Wardrobe Week 
Peace Corps Week 

Today Is                                                                      

·        International Polar Bear Day

·        National Chili Day

·        National Day of Action (Peace Corps)

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·        Independence Day (Dominican Republic-1844-from Haiti)

Today’s Events through History  

1813 - 1st federal vaccination legislation enacted

1883 - Oscar Hammerstein patents 1st cigar-rolling machine

1922 - Supreme Court unanimously upheld 19th amend woman's right to vote

1988 - Katarina Witt (GDR) wins 2nd consecutive Olympic figure skating

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Joanne Woodward, actress (3 Faces of Eve, Rachel) is 84

Ralph Nader, consumer advocate (Unsafe at Any Speed) is 80

[Navarre] Scott Momaday, author (House Made of Dawn, Pulitzer 1969) is 80

Barbara Babcock, actor (Dr Quinn, Dallas, Hill St Blues) is 77

Howard Hesseman, actor (Dr Johnny Fever-WKRP, Head of Class) is 74

Josh Groban, American singer is 33

Remembered for being born today

1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Portland Maine, poet (Hiawatha)

1902 - John Steinbeck, author (Grapes of Wrath-Nobel 1962)

1932 - Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress  

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Lillian Gish, US actress (Birth of a Nation), 1993, @99

S I Hayakawa, (Sen-California, 1977-83), 1992, @85

William F. Buckley, Jr., conservative author and commentator, 2008, @82

Pat J O'Malley, actor (My Favorite Martian, Maude), 1985, @80

Van Cliburn, American prodigy pianist, bone cancer, 2013, @78

Fred Rogers, host of TV's "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood", cancer, 2003, @74

Louis Vuitton, French luggage maker, 1892, @70

Pat Brady, actor (Roy Rodgers Show), 1974, @57

Frankie Lymon, rock and roll/rhythm & blues singer, OD, 1968, @25

Brain Teasers

"Whole" and "Half." The obvious idea is that the list is of ordinal numbers. However, it is actually a list of the names of the inverse fractions of the natural numbers. That is, 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, etc.

Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.

All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.

§    And That Is All for Now  §